Bogdan Bliznyuk caps memorable week with EWU’s first triple-double

His coach calls him a “blur.”

And that’s just how last week passed for Eastern Washington forward Bogdan Bliznyuk: It was a blur, but the memory will last forever.

On Wednesday he became an American citizen; three days later he recorded the first triple-double in school history to lead the Eagles to a 96-73 Big Sky Conference win over Northern Arizona.

When the game was over at Reese Court, it was hard to tell which feat meant more to Bliznyuk. Both brought a reflective smile.

The road to citizenship began at the age of 7, when his family emigrated from Ukraine; it ended with a drive back to Seattle on Tuesday to take the oath of citizenship.

“Now I’m an American,” Bliznyuk said.

The other journey was paved with frustration for last year’s Big Sky Freshman of the Year. Missed shots and missed opportunities brought whispers of a sophomore jinx.

Said Bliznyuk, “I had to keep pushing.”

On a day when the outside shots weren’t falling, Bliznyuk did just that. He pushed the ball upcourt against the NAU press, drove the lane and scrapped for rebounds. Sometimes he did all three on the same possession.

The result was a stat line never before seen at Eastern: 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, a complete game that translated into a wire-to-wire win that improved the Eagles to 9-8 overall and 3-2 in the Big Sky.

It also served noticed that last year’s Big Sky champs are back in the groove after opening conference play with two losses. The main reason: along with forward Venky Jois and wing Julian Harrell, Bliznyuk can do it all.

“The glue of our program is our position that we call a ‘blur,’” Hayford explained. “We try to blur the 2, 3 and 4 positions, and to be able to do that, you have to be able to score off the drive, off the post-up and be able to shoot the three.”

“And then you have to be an excellent passer because we are going to run offense through you,” Hayford said.

On Saturday, that was Bliznyuk. Early on he worked inside with Jois, who finished with a game-high 21 points and helped the Eagles to a dominating 43-21 rebounding advantage.

That opened up the outside game: EWU was only 4-for-15 from long range in the first half but 6-for-11 in the second as point guard Austin McBroom finished with 19. Harrell was in the mix as well, finishing with 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting.

The biggest surprise was the Eastern bench, which outscored its NAU counterparts 27-16. Sir Washington – a starter while Harrell recovered from hand surgery – went 5-for-5 on the way to a career-high 13 points; and redshirt freshman Cody Benzel from Spokane hit a pair of 3s.

“We’re very grateful for a very solid homestand these three games,” said Hayford, whose team plays at Montana State on Thursday and Montana two days later.

“We played really well and found our balance and rhythm as a team these last two weeks,”Hayford said.

Indeed, in their last three games against Idaho, Southern Utah and NAU, the Eagles won by a combined 64 points.

The Lumberjacks stayed close in the first half, leading 22-18 after 8 ½ minutes. However, Eastern limited NAU to just 5 second-chance points and dominant rebouding to a pair of 12-0 runs to take a 45-32 halftime lead.

“We are getting better defensively every day,” Hayford said.

NAU (3-13 overall, 1-4 Big Sky) closed within 10 early in the second half, but McBroom and Washington got hot from the outside. McBroom’s 3-pointer with 9:54 left pushed the lead to 71-50 and the game was hardly in doubt after that.

Eastern took its biggest lead at 82-56 on two free throws from Harrell with 5:05 left.

NAU had double-figure scoring from four players, with forward Ako Kaluna getting 18.